#213: World Cup City - Argentina š¦š·
Day 47: (Not) In Patagonia
Welcome to an ongoing Brussels Notes series exploring the 48 participating countries of the 2026 World Cup, without leaving Brussels. Read the explainer, check out the other entries, and then subscribe.
Mi Tango, Rue de Spa 31, 1000 Bruxelles / Empanadas, Rue GĆ©rard 148, 1040 Etterbeek
Do Gauchos dream of empanadas?
Itās a question that came to me when I was standing outside the Mi Tango the other day. The place, on a sun-trap street corner on the Rue des Deux Eglises, describes itself as a āRestaurant Argentinā. The menu is not printed or placed anywhere on the facade or in the windows of the place, but Iām able to pull it up on my phone. It is everything I expected from the third highest-rated Argentinian restaurant in Brussels. Lomo Argentine and Parrillada Argentine, 250 grams of BifĆ© angosto Argentine for ā¬38 and a Tira de asado of pure Argentine filet with Chorizo sausage. It was enough to make a man salivate.
I must have read about the asado - a barbeque and social event more than any kind of a dish - for the first time in the early chapters of In Patagonia. Before he sets off on his trek south proper, Bruce Chatwin describes attending one in Las Pampas, a village 20 miles āfrom the last settlement before the borderā, where a gaucho with German and Indian blood gutted five sheep carcasses and cooked them over open flame. Even if you can never really rely on Bruce to tell you the actual truth of what happened to him on his trip through Argentina, the asado remains central to Argentine hospitality and to the nationās idea of its own virility and masculinity. But I had had enough meat already on this odyssey through Brussels, it seemed like some kind of crime against Argentinian cooking to go to a steak house and eat a veggie burger - or worse, a salad. Time was ticking on though, and as I had already missed the chance to attend the last Milonga of Brusselsā Tango season, I needed to find a meat-free alternative if I was going to be able to tick Argentina off my to-do list.
Enter the empanada. So far as I can tell, from a cursory filleting of my browning copy, they do not feature in In Patagonia. But they are on the Mi Tango menu alright, though as you might expect their pastry pockets were stuffed with beef and only came as a side attraction to the main event. Fortunately, I knew of a place uphill in distant Etterbeek that might be able to help me out with a vegetarian alternative, and so I set off on a trek of my own up the Maalbeek valley.
The shop on Rue GĆ©rard is called Empanadas, and it sells empanadas. In front of the small shopfront is a little A-frame sign with the illustration in red paint of a clenched fist grasping a fresh-out-of-the-oven empanada in its palm and an arrow directing you towards the entrance with the words āOPEN NOWā. Inside, an abridged menu offers five varieties of āempanadas artisanalesā: beef, chicken, tuna, quinoa, and cheese, with each of them arranged for display in wicker baskets below the counter.
Behind them is an old man perched on a high stool so his chin just clears the counter. He has a face like old saddle leather, a trim grey moustache and a crumpled beige camp shirt. When I order a cheese empanada and a bottle of Jarritos Guava (I know itās Mexican), he asks in a thick, hoarse whisper whether itās to eat in or to go. Itās ready in 30 seconds and I leave with it tucked into a small paper pocket.
I have a profound respect for any food culture that has perfected the handheld pastry - something signally lacking in Irish cuisine - in the way that Latin America has done with the empanada. For a little while - as long as it took me to wolf it down - I could pretend that I wasnāt traversing the baking hot concrete plains of upper Etterbeek, but instead rolling uncomfortably through the Patagonian grasslands sitting in a worn saddle, one hand on the reins and the other cradling my empanada.
Tomorrow, itās the final entry, country number 48ā¦
Thanks for reading - Iām writer Eoghan Walsh and this is my weekly free-to-subscribe newsletter about life in Brussels. If you like it and youāre not already subscribed, you can sign up here!